1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to vehicles, and, more particularly, to a lane departure warning system that is suitably applied to vehicles.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various systems for safe traveling have been developed or applied to recently produced vehicles. For example, one of the systems is a lane departure warning system which suitably provides a warning to a driver when a vehicle deviates from a lane due to his or her careless driving.
The types of lane departure warning systems may be suitably classified into a scheme using a camera preferably located near an inside mirror, a scheme using a rear camera preferably located on the trunk, a lane detection scheme using an optical sensor preferably installed on the bottom of a vehicle, etc. Most lane departure warning systems currently being developed adopt the scheme using a camera that is preferably located near an inside mirror.
Because such a lane departure warning system uses a camera to suitably detect a lane, the performance of lane detection may considerably vary according, for example, to the weather, illuminance, and road surface conditions, etc. that are present during travel of the vehicle. For example, as shown in FIG. 1A, a right lane-dividing line 1 may not be detectable due to dust on the road surface or due to the aging of the lanes in a tunnel or on a national road. Further, as shown in FIG. 1B or 1C, the lane-dividing line 3 of a lane adjacent to an actual driving lane, or the border of a guard rail 5, rather than the lane-dividing line 2 or 4 of the actual driving lane, may be erroneously detected as a lane-dividing line in many cases. Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 1D, in certain examples, a lane-dividing line is hidden by the shadow 6 of a guard rail and cannot be accurately detected.
In conventional technology, deviation from a lane is suitably detected using only a camera with a warning that is suitably provided; however a warning cannot be suitably provided while a vehicle is traveling on a road for which lane-dividing lines are not suitably detectable, and accordingly, since it is not possible to determine whether the detected lane-dividing lines are accurate, subsequently an erroneous warning may be frequently given.
The above information disclosed in this the Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.